Jonathan Millar 
Anil Krishna 
James Oconner 
‘Lanterns’ Episode 4 Breakdown: The Manhunter Reveal, Major Misdirections, and DC Lore Explained
© HBO
Warning: Major spoilers ahead for HBO’s Lanterns Season 1, Episode 4, “The Weenie.”
After spending much of Episode 3 digging into the characters and their histories, Lanterns gets back to the murder mystery in Episode 4. And this one has quite a bit going on. Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) and John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) are getting closer to the Manhunter they’ve been trying to find in Rushville, Nebraska, while the episode throws in an interrogation with Sinestro, a familiar Green Lantern villain, and a reveal that makes some of the earlier episodes look a little different in hindsight.
The show, from Chris Mundy, Tom King, and Damon Lindelof, is still trying to balance two very different kinds of stories here. On one side, you’ve got the small-town investigation, suspicious people and guarded conversations. On the other, there are ancient alien machines and the much bigger DC mythology sitting behind everything. Episode 4 leans pretty heavily into both.
What Is “The Weenie”? The Architectural Meaning Behind the Title
The title sounds ridiculous until John Stewart explains it, and that’s where his background in architecture actually becomes useful. While watching William Macon’s (Garret Dillahunt) heavily guarded compound from the town water tower, John notices something in the middle of the property. There’s a concealed structure surrounded by guard towers, and he figures that this is probably the place they should be paying attention to.
John calls the structure a “weenie.” It’s an actual architectural term, although it isn’t exactly something you hear every day. The word was famously used by Walt Disney for a visual feature that draws people toward a particular location, like Cinderella Castle in a Disney park. Basically, it’s the thing you’re meant to look at, even if you’re not immediately sure why.
For John, that idea gives him a way into Macon’s compound. If the central structure is the visual focal point, there’s a good chance it’s also where the important people, equipment and secret operations are being kept. Suddenly the rather odd title of the episode makes sense, and John’s architectural knowledge isn’t just there for character flavour.
The Big Reveal: Who Is the Manhunter?
The identity of the Manhunter has been hanging over Lanterns since the beginning, and Episode 4 finally gives us an answer. Hal and John work their way toward Zoe Macon (Poorna Jagannathan), William’s wife, as the person they’re actually looking for.
It’s one of those reveals that feels more obvious once you know it. Zoe has been behaving strangely all along, especially compared with how paranoid William is about everyone around him. He keeps a tight grip on his compound, yet Zoe seems to come and go whenever she wants. She also has an affair with John, who William clearly doesn’t trust, and somehow that doesn’t appear to cause the sort of trouble you’d expect. More importantly, Zoe often seems like the person actually running things behind the scenes.
So while the episode presents the reveal as a major turn in the investigation, there were clues sitting there if you were paying close enough attention. The show just wasn’t waving a giant sign at them.
Sinestro’s Interrogation and the Misdirection
One of the episode’s best scenes takes place nowhere near Nebraska. Hal travels off-world to question his former mentor, Thaal Sinestro (Ulrich Thomsen), who is being held in an isolation cell. Sinestro isn’t exactly interested in making things easy for him. Instead, he spends the conversation getting inside Hal’s head, playing on his insecurities and reminding him that the Guardians of the Universe could eventually decide he’s no longer useful.
Sinestro does, however, give Hal something important. Manhunters can completely change their physical appearance, meaning you can’t necessarily identify one by looking at it. But their organic crystal heart is different. That’s the one thing they can’t disguise.
That information becomes useful when Hal and John confront Hector Hammond (Jason Manuel Olazábal). Hal uses what Sinestro told him, along with a pretty intense interrogation, to get Hector talking. Hector eventually admits that he’s not the Manhunter himself. He’s a human being using alien technology, basically another piece in the larger puzzle.
And then the episode pulls another trick. Just when Zoe appears to be the person Hal and John have been looking for, her pickup truck is apparently vaporized by an orbital satellite strike.
Is Zoe really dead? Maybe. But this is Lanterns, and considering who’s behind the show, it would be a little dangerous to assume anything that happens this early is exactly what it looks like. The series has already spent a lot of time setting up misdirection, so killing Zoe off immediately after the detectives finally identify her could be another way of pushing them in the wrong direction. William Macon could still have a role to play, and so could other people in Rushville, including Antaan.
The DC Lore Gets More Interesting
Episode 4 isn’t only concerned with the mystery. It also starts pulling more directly from Green Lantern history. Hector Hammond is one of the classic villains from the comics, and his presence brings mind manipulation and telepathic interference into the Nebraska story. He’s not just another suspicious person for Hal and John to question.
The Sinestro scenes are important for a different reason. Hal and Sinestro clearly have a long history, and their relationship has deteriorated badly. Watching Sinestro manipulate Hal during the interrogation gives some idea of how much his former mentor’s downfall still bothers him. There’s a lot more going on between these two than a simple hero-and-villain confrontation.
By the end of the episode, the investigation is in a strange place. The detectives seem to have found their Manhunter, only for that lead to disappear almost immediately. At the same time, they’re dealing with people who may be hiding far more than they’re willing to admit, while the alien side of the story keeps getting bigger.
That’s probably the most interesting thing about Lanterns at this point. The show can go from a conversation between two suspicious people in a Nebraska town to an off-world prison cell and an ancient alien threat without completely abandoning its murder-mystery setup. Whether all those pieces eventually fit together is another question, but Episode 4 certainly gives the investigation a lot more to chew on.
Lanterns streams new episodes weekly on HBO Max.
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